24G NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID^. 



8. 2)ifiorlus from Linnaius, as I recently' did (1. s. c), 1 rested 

 ui)oii the exclusive pertinence of bis diagnosis, and his quota- 

 tion ot Catesb3\ 



The Mephitis interrupta of Eafinesque may or may not have 

 been " a pure figment of his imagination '\ It probably, how- 

 ever, had some basis, and if his account does not wholly agree 

 with specimens of Spilogale putorius examined, it will be re- 

 membered that even his elastic imagination would be put to 

 the stretch to describe a spotted and striped Skunk in terms 

 too exaggerated to be met by the reality which this species 

 offers. We may accept his name as undoubtedly belonging 

 here, and in fact we should adopt it, as a more definite appella- 

 tion than zorilla, were it not anticipated by Linnaeus, as just 

 shown. 



Among earlier accounts, the best description I have seen is 

 that presented by Shaw, page 389, vol. i. of the General Zool- 

 ogy, under head of " var." of his Striated Weesel. Shaw refers 

 to some miscellaneous plates of animals published a short time 

 previously by Mr. Catton, among which is a representation of 

 an animal " having only four white bands on the back, and the 

 tail almost entirely white ; a patch of white appears below each 

 ear, and a small triangular white spot on the forehead. In the 

 description accompanying the plate the animal is said to have 

 measured twelve inches from nose to tail, and to have been 

 brought from Bengal." The probably erroneous locality aside, 

 the whole account is perfectly, and indeed exclusively, pertinent 

 to Spilogale putorius. 



In Du Pratz's Louisiana, there is a description of a '' bete 

 puante", which certainly conforms to no known species, but 

 which was probably meant to be this one, to judge from the 

 locality and the ascribed size. It is the basis of Mephitis myotis 

 Fischer, I. c. 



1^^1837, Dr. J. E. Gray bestowed upon this species the name 

 of M.bicolorj by which it has been generally known of late years. 

 About the same time, Lichtenstein adox^ted the name of M. 

 zorilla^ after Buffon, in which he was followed by Wagner and 

 Audubon. Lichtenstein's earlier M. zorilla, of the Darstellun- 

 gen neuer Siiugethiere, u. s. w., is ihe entirely different African 

 animal. 



The only description I have seen in which /oitr white lines are 

 prominently indicated since those of Linnaeus and Shaw is an 

 account given in 1859, when a certain Mephitis quaterlinearis 



